Question & Answers with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Q: Gurudev, How can one find the purpose of life?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Become calm and listen to your inner self. Do you all have cell phones? What do you need for the cell phone to work? If there is no SIM card, will it work? If there is a SIM card, but you are far away, will it work? You need a SIM card, signal and the battery must be charged. So all three are required: battery, SIM card and closeness to the tower.

Even if you have all three but you don’t dial, will it work? You need to do that much. The spiritual connection is the tower. Self-effort is that little dialing and meditation is charging. Then our prayers will be answered. Sometimes the prayers are not answered. Why? Because there is no SIM card. You have the ability to bless and grant others’ wishes when the mind is serene.

Q: Gurudev, I am crazy about your talks but tell me how to overcome the hurdles that you are creating on the path?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Don’t consider them as hurdles.

Q: Gurudev, Guruji, how can I focus, have a vision and still be in the present moment?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Do not think that having a vision is contradictory to living in the present moment. You can have a vision and be in the present moment. Being totally in the present moment can give you a better vision and focus for the future.

Q: Gurudev, Survivors of war and disaster sometimes feel guilty about being alive when so many around them have died. What message do you have for these people?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Life is eternal. That’s it.

Q: Gurudev, Dearest Guruji, what is ambition and what is greed? What is the line differentiating both? With love and pranams…

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Greed is when nothing matters to you - no people matter to you. Only money matters, only you matter, that is greed. Greed is beyond your capability, beyond what you deserve. Even at the cost of suffering for others or yourself, you want to have it.You aspire and you want it by hook or crook, that is greed. Ambition is you have set a goal, you want to achieve it. That is ok.

Q: Gurudev, Is it important to get married? How do I know that someone is right for me or not?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

You have to decide if you want to get married or not. This is something that neither your parents nor your Guru should decide. With whom, that also you decide. This includes decision of both you and the person whom you want to get married to. What I say in this is ‘Choice is yours, blessing is mine’.

Q: Gurudev, Can a person struggling for livelihood progress on the spiritual path?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Some people say that to walk on the spiritual path you have to abandon your professional life. But I say you can continue pursuing your profession or business, and progress on the spiritual path as well. In fact, they are complementary to each other. Pursuing the spiritual path makes it easy to accomplish tasks in your professional life as well. Only listening to this knowledge doesn’t help. Doing your practices along with it is equally important.

Q: Gurudev, It is said that after lots of merits one gets a human birth. Then how come the population of humans is increasing in the world because people are not very meritorious in the world today?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Population of many animal species like scorpions, snakes is also decreasing. Animals in forests might have taken birth as humans. You think over this.

Q: Gurudev, Is it ever possible to be free from desires?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Yes. Otherwise you could never sleep. If the desire haunts your head, you can’t sleep. You let go of the desire so you can sleep. At different times, different needs arise in your body and mind. So, you do not sit here and worry about what you are going to have for tomorrow’s dinner. You know that you have come here for a different purpose. An intention is different from the desire. An example of intention would be the thought that you want to go to New York, and you sit in the car and you drive. You go through Philadelphia and New Jersey. You take the turnpike or I-95 North until you get to New York. This is an intention. Desire is when you sit in the car and say, “I am going to New York, I am going to New York, I want to go to New York, I want to go to New York.” Continuously chanting like this may lead you ending up in the mental hospital. You won’t end up in New York. This is the difference with a sankalpa (an intention). An intention with attention and it will manifest. If the intention becomes a desire, it only brings grief whether it’s fulfilled or unfulfilled.You know, in the 1960’s and 70’s we had the Hippie Movement. It was created out of abundance rather than lack. All of these people had everything in abundance. People who go to drug abuse or who are indulging in alcoholism are lacking in spiritual education or knowledge. They are seeking an experiential validation of their spirit. That is what leads to depression. There are large populations suffering from depression in the world today. According to statistics it will rise to as much as 50 percent in the coming decade, half the population will be depressed. We need to change this and Prozaic is not the solution. The solution is meditation and yoga.

Q: Gurudev, We heard that Abhimanyu learnt one of the difficult and tactful war act called ‘chakravyuh’ while he was in his mother’s womb. So, is it possible to learn something while in womb also?